Furnace Installation in Hammond, IN
A new furnace here will run from October through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Lake County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
What a Hammond winter asks of a new furnace
Furnace season here runs eight months, October through May. Winter nights average 20°F, and the furnace you install now is the one that has to hold that line most of the year.
Most homes in the area heat with gas, and any new non-weatherized gas furnace has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE under the federal minimum that took effect in 2015. Lake County also sees its share of winter storms and damaging wind, and outages follow them. Ask what happens to the furnace you install when the power goes out and comes back, since that answer matters as much as the AFUE number does.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 20°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 86%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 80% AFUE
- the federal minimum any new unit must meet
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A high-efficiency gas furnace would save about $100 a year to run in Lake County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Lake County home, from EIA household energy data, Indiana fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
In Indiana, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the counties and cities.
That means whether a contractor needs a local license depends on the city or township the house sits in, not on anything the state itself checks. Some places in Lake County require one, some don't, and there's no statewide list to check against. What Indiana does not do is test or register HVAC contractors itself, so no state license number exists to stand behind this work.
For a furnace install, the protection here comes from the permit, not a license. In most cities and counties, putting in a new furnace needs a permit from the local building office, and the work gets inspected once it's done. That inspection is what catches a bad gas connection, which is the part of this job that actually matters if it's done wrong. With most homes in Lake County heating with gas, that inspection is doing the job a license would do elsewhere.
Sources: Indiana Department of Workforce Development · State of Indiana
- What size furnace does my house need?
- The right size comes from a load calculation, not the square footage of your house alone. A contractor measures your walls, windows, insulation, and ceiling height, then figures out how much heat you lose on a cold night. Too big and the furnace short cycles, heating fast then shutting off before it evens out the rooms. Too small and it runs constantly through the coldest stretch and still falls behind. With winter nights here averaging 20°F, getting this number right matters more than it would somewhere milder.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Age is the first thing to check, along with how often it's needed repair lately. As a furnace gets older, repairs tend to get more frequent, and the risk of a breakdown on a cold night goes up. Watch for uneven heat between rooms, a furnace that runs longer than it used to, or a gas bill that climbs without a reason. If a repair is going to cost close to what a new unit runs, replacing it usually makes more sense, since homes here need heat eight months of the year and an old furnace has that much more work to do.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how much heat your house needs and how long you plan to stay in it. Any furnace built new today has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE, so even a standard model isn't wasteful. A high-efficiency furnace pushes that number higher, turning more of the gas you burn into heat instead of losing it out the flue. With heat needed here from October through May, eight months of the year, that difference gets more chances to add up than it would somewhere with a short winter. A contractor can walk you through the actual models and what each one would mean for your house.